Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................................1
What You Need To Play..............................................................................................................................1
A Note On The Text............................................................................................................................... 1
Contacting The Author.............................................................................................................................. 2
General Play...................................................................................................................................................... 2
Scene Framing............................................................................................................................................. 2
Free Roleplaying..........................................................................................................................................2
The Examples...............................................................................................................................................3
Session One: The First Doom.......................................................................................................................... 4
Character Generation................................................................................................................................. 4
Councilors............................................................................................................................................... 4
Some Example Councilor Roles...................................................................................................... 5
Heroes...................................................................................................................................................... 5
Picking Name, Emotions and Specialty......................................................................................... 5
Allocate Points.................................................................................................................................. 6
Example Emotion Pairs.................................................................................................................... 6
Example Of Character Generation.......................................................................................................7
Emotion Pairs For This Game..........................................................................................................7
The First Committee Meeting................................................................................................................... 7
Discussing The First Doom................................................................................................................... 7
Votes In The Town Committee............................................................................................................ 8
Discuss Aspects Of The First Doom..................................................................................................... 8
Example Of Play: The First Committee Meeting.......................................................................... 8
Preparing For The Battle...................................................................................................................... 9
The Doom Master Prepares The Aspects...................................................................................... 9
Aspect Points By Number Of Players........................................................................................... 10
Example Of Play: Allocating Points To Aspects..........................................................................10
The Heroes Make Their Plans....................................................................................................... 10
The Heroes Confront The First Doom....................................................................................................10
Timing ...................................................................................................................................................11
Confronting An Aspect Of Doom....................................................................................................... 11
What If The Heroes Can't Agree Who Goes First?..................................................................... 11
Conflict Resolution.............................................................................................................................. 12
Initiator And Defender...................................................................................................................12
Overall Conflict Structure............................................................................................................. 12
What Happens Each Round........................................................................................................... 12
Results Of A Conflict Round.......................................................................................................... 13
Injury................................................................................................................................................ 14
Heroic Rivalry..................................................................................................................................14
Conflict Example, Concluded........................................................................................................ 15
The Other Aspects Of The First Doom.............................................................................................. 16
The Heroes Return To The Committee..................................................................................................16
Glory.......................................................................................................................................................16
Healing...................................................................................................................................................16
Session Two: The Second Doom...................................................................................................................17
The Second Committee Meeting............................................................................................................ 17
Picking The Second Doom.................................................................................................................. 17
Preparing For Battle............................................................................................................................ 17
Introduction
Bad things happen in threes.1
Three Dooms is a roleplaying game set at the dawn of civilization. The game is about a thriving
community of farmers and tradesmen, the zenith of human development for many days' journey
in any direction.
But this town faces three terrible threats that may destroy it. Only the wisdom of the committee
of elders and the strength and cunning of its heroes can save it.
You will play the parts of these councilors and heroes. If you succeed, the town will be
remembered as another Jericho or Ur. If you fail, then it will be destroyed and lost in the mists of
time.
The game is played in three sessions, one for each of the three dooms that threaten the town.
Each session should take three hours. It will begin with a committee meeting in which the doom
is discussed (and in the process defined for the game). One player will roleplays the forces of
doom and the others will play the heroes fighting it. At the end, the heroes will return to town
and rewarded for their achievements or lambasted for their failures.
At the end of the third session, you will know if all three dooms have been prevented or not. This
determines whether the town survives.
Secondarily, you will know which of the heroes was most glorious. That hero's name will be
remembered through history as one of the greatest legends to walk the earth.
A big handful of (six sided) dice. You could need as many as twenty, but probably ten will
be enough.
1 I'm not sure where this saying comes from, or if it is widely known. But my grandmother says it.
Three Dooms
by Michael Sands
Page 1
General Play
The main text is divided into sections detailing each of the three sessions, in order.
Each element of the game is introduced and explained at the point that you will first come across
it. It is intended that you should play the game with the rules open to the section that you are
currently playing through, and that the relevant rules and instructions should be there in front of
you.
This means that the bulk of the rules are explained in the section on session one, with the other
sections dealing primarily with the changes in rules for the sessions two and three.
I expect that anyone reading this is already familiar with roleplaying games, so you may already
know this next bit. The text refers a few times to scene framing and free roleplaying. These are
techniques for roleplaying that fit in between the pieces of Three Dooms that are dealt with
mechanically.
Scene Framing
Framing a scene is when one of the players (typically whoever is currently Doom Master, in Three
Dooms) begins a scene of play by describing the general situation. Significant things are
mentioned and the overall direction of the scene should be obvious from this frame.
E.g. Derek frames a scene. The heroes have traveled for many days and finally reach the lands of
the filth people. Their village has a light stockade around it, decorated with the charred heads of
their enemies. Outriders patrol near the village and as you get near, three approach you. You have
not been seen yet but must soon decide what to do about them.
Calling for conflict resolution is a related part of play. Players should aim to use the conflict
resolution mechanics to help make scenes more fun. Generally this will mean that you do some
free roleplaying (see below) to build up towards the conflict and then begin using the resolution
rules before the free roleplaying gets boring.
Ending of scenes is also part of framing. If a scene is petering out then it should be ended and a
new scene framed. Signs that a scene should be ended are that the players are losing interest and
that there seems no chance that an interesting conflict will develop.
Free Roleplaying
Free roleplaying is the activity that takes up most of a roleplaying game, in which all the players
describe the words and actions of the characters they control without referring to the written
rules of the game.
E.g. (continues)
Three Dooms
by Michael Sands
Page 2
Ant (as his Hero, Obsidian): Okay guys, I think we should slaughter these scouts and then I can use
my magic on their corpses.
Chad: Ah, I'm not so sure. These people don't know we're hostile yet. We should find out more.
Barry: I'm with Chad. Mighty Axe stands up and says 'Hey you guys, take us to your chief or priest
of whatever.'
Derek (as an outrider): Aiee! Hey, put down your weapons or we kill you foreign dogs!
Chad: I guess they do know we're hostile. Two Lions says 'No way you put down your weapons.
We're not your slaves and don't you forget it.'
Derek: So the outriders size you up and seem to decide that the odds aren't with them. The guy
who spoke confers with his mates and then says 'It is for the wizened one to decide. Follow us.'
This sort of play will continue until the scene comes to a natural end or else the rules need to be
invoked. In Three Dooms, rules determine how the town's committee votes on the Dooms facing
the town and how conflicts amongst the Heroes or between Heroes and Aspects of each Doom
turn out.
The Examples
The examples of play throughout the game follow a single game of Three Dooms, to illustrate
various elements of the system.
The players in this game are called Ant, Barry, Chad and Derek2. You'll get introduced to their
characters properly in the character generation section (page 4).
2 These names were picked solely for matching the tokens A, B, C and D in the first draft.
Three Dooms
by Michael Sands
Page 3
Character Generation
Character generation should take about 20 minutes. If this part of the game seems to be going on
too long, speed it up by helping out slower players with suggestions and explanations. Don't fall
into the trap of spending too long considering what emotions, Specialties and ratings to give your
Hero.
Begin by deciding where the town is and giving it a name.
Areas in which early civilizations are known to have grown are (starting earliest) Sumeria, Egypt,
the Indus Valley, China, Crete and Mesoamerica3. You can, of course, have your town be
anywhere you like.
As no languages from these days survive, names should be rendered in translation. That is, all
names ought to be meaningful words or phrases. These might be a person's job, a personal trait, a
nickname, or something that they are known for. Some examples are: Active, Broken Spear,
Fairskin, Fast Runner, Giant, Goatherd, Lost Statue, One-eye, Sneaky.
The world of Three Dooms is as the ancients believed it was: monsters, spirits, magicians and gods
will be common in the game. In order to get a primal, early civilization style to the events, all
players should make an effort to get into the mindset of pre-scientific people (after all, even their
religion and politics were nothing like what we know today). The world was mysterious and
mostly unknown, and most events were attributed to some kind of sentient agent4.
Councilors
The Councilors are defined by three factors only:
Name
Driving emotion
Councilors resolve their conflicts via voting in the committee sections of the game. The name,
role and emotion are intended to give each player a foundation about what the Councilor will
consider important, what information they might have access to, and so on.
To create your Councilor, simply fill in descriptions for each of the three traits.
Most Councilors have equal say in the voting, but some duties in the committee will be allocated
to particular Councilors. These are selected based on the age of the Councilor's player initially
and may change in the second and third session based on Glory earned by each player's Hero
character. Read about committee meetings on page 7.
by Michael Sands
Page 4
Heroes
The town's Heroes are defined by:
Name
Heroes are able to win in conflicts in which they can bring their main emotional drives to bear.
Emotions may be defined fairly broadly the key is that they are the forces that motivate your
Hero. They do not have to be positive emotions either, if you wish to make up an anti-hero
motivated by a negative emotion, go ahead. Some example emotions are: Rage, Greed, Sense of
justice, Curiosity (more examples are listed below, in the Example Emotion Pairs section).
Grit is a measure of how many defeats they can sustain before they begin to lose heart or,
eventually, die. Note that Heroes may only be killed in the third session, but that being defeated
will always have negative repercussions.
Specialties give the ability to re-roll a failure in conflict if the Specialty applies. They may be skills
(Unparalleled swordsman), special powers (Moon magic), followers (Long Legs the archer),
unusual items (Crystal Flower of the Death God), animals (Swiftness the horse), or anything
else you can think of that might help your Hero out sometimes.
Heroes want to save the town, but they also want Glory. The Hero who ends the game with the
most Glory is the winner. Even if the town is destroyed, you can consider everyone else to have
lost much worse than you.
Name.
A single Specialty.
Three Dooms
by Michael Sands
Page 5
No duplicate emotions are allowed in the group. You may choose similar emotions, but not
identical ones. If more than one player wants to use the same emotion, there are two ways to deal
with this problem. The best way is to discuss it and try to come up with some similar emotions, so
that each of you can take a different one. If you can't manage this, then roll a die each. The
highest roll gets to take the contested emotion.
Then each player picks their Supporting Emotion to be the opposite of another Hero's Driving
Emotion. Make sure that each Driving Emotion only has one opposite, and note down all the
opposed emotion pairs: this is very important! You can define the opposites however you like and
they can (and should) vary in different games of Three Dooms. The chosen pairs of opposed
emotions will define the tone of the game.
Note down the opposed emotion pairs on the Doom Sheet. Later in the game, they will need to be
referred to there. There's also a space on your character sheet to note down the opposites of both
your Hero's emotions, just so you don't forget.
Allocate Points
Once you have defined your emotions and starting Specialty, you allocate points amongst the two
emotions and Grit. You have TEN points to allocate. You may allocate them as desired with the
following restrictions:
1. Driving Emotion must be at least 2.
2. Driving Emotion must be higher than the Supporting Emotion.
3. Supporting Emotion must be at least 0.
4. Grit must be at least 3.
When deciding how to allocate these numbers, bear in mind the following:
Neglecting Supporting Emotion may cause trouble if you need to defend against the
emotion opposed to your Driving Emotion.
Neglecting Grit will mean you win more conflicts but suffer much more if you happen to
lose any.
Angry Calm
Spiritual Cynical
Tolerant Xenophobic
Disgust Acceptance
Joyful Depressive
Shame Pride
Hate Love
Fear Confidence
Optimistic Pessimistic
Kindness Meanness
Gregarious Misanthropic
Hope Despair
Schadenfreude Empathy
Courage Cowardice
Intuition Rationality
Pity Cruelty
Violent Peaceful
Pleasure - Pain
Three Dooms
by Michael Sands
Page 6
by Michael Sands
Page 7
Once the Doom has been identified by consensus or vote, it becomes real in the game. That means
that, regardless of what was said in discussion, that Doom now is and always was the greatest
threat facing the town. Any opinions otherwise must have been mistaken or dishonest.
The player whose Councilor initially suggested the chosen Doom will be the Doom Master for this
session.
by Michael Sands
Page 8
by Michael Sands
Page 9
Doom
4 Players
5 Players
6 Players
7 Players
8 Players
First
40
43
46
49
52
Second
45
48
51
54
57
Third
50
53
56
59
62
Three Dooms
by Michael Sands
Page 10
Timing
Timing for this section is 2 hours and 10 minutes (the rest of the session minus 5 minutes for
another quick committee meeting). That gives you about 25 minutes per Aspect.
It's important to keep the game moving, because you don't get a second chance at the Doom. If
there are Aspects undefeated when you run out of time, then you have failed. The game is not
intended to be rigidly timed, so there is some flexibility available.
If you reach the end of the session and haven't even started confronting some of the Aspects, the
Doom Master is allowed to end the session and declare those Aspects undefeated6.
by Michael Sands
Page 11
around the group, giving each player the opportunity to have their Hero Duel the current
champion, until everyone has had a chance.
Whoever wins the last Duel then gets to start the original conflict with the Aspect.
Conflict Resolution
There are two situations that these conflict resolution rules are required. The first is when a Hero
attempts to overcome an Aspect of Doom. The second is when two Heroes Duel to see who
prevails in some disagreement (usually about who gets a turn at conflict with an Aspect, as
described above).
Conflicts are driven by the emotions that the two contestants use. The conflict can be of any type
that the participants want combat, a race, a duel of wits, a cook-off, persuasion, showing off.
Each participant can even be trying something different, such as one attacking with a sword
while the other attempts a seduction. In all cases, the winner's tactic will define the results.
Then the conflict is divided into rounds. Each round has a detailed attempt to win made by each
participant, which is resolved by a dice roll from each of them, and then working out the fallout
of the roll.
Depending on what happened, the conflict may end after that or the Initiator may choose to go
on to another round.
by Michael Sands
Page 12
However, everything is not over yet. Heroes may reroll their dice if they can think of a way that a
Specialty would help them win, and Aspects may do the same if their nature would help. Each
Specialty and Aspect description may only be used once per conflict.
Later in the game, some players will have Glory scores. Each Glory point allows another reroll
each conflict. If you are the Doom Master, you may use your Glory to reroll for Aspects as well.
The Initiator may get one reroll if the emotions being used are opposed. The Defender gains one
reroll if the emotions are the same.
E.g. Derek says I am going to use the Aspect description to reroll. Vermin that have been blighting
the crops begin to crawl all over Obsidian, interrupting his flattery. His reroll, unfortunately, is
worse: 6, 3, 2, 1. Obsidian still wins the round.
Rerolls may continue as long as either participant has the opportunity and desire to keep going
with them.
Once the rerolls are over, we now know who won and who lost. Sometimes the dice will be tied,
with all dice matched, which is fine.
by Michael Sands
Page 13
E.g. In our example, things are pretty simple. The 'Unhealthy Crops' Aspect of the Doom is Injured
and loses 1 Grit, leaving it with Grit 2. Obsidian chooses to continue the conflict.
Injury
An Injury represents the Aspect or Hero becoming weakened as a result of a conflict. It may be
any sort of weakness: an actual physical Injury, a magical curse, a loss of confidence, a hangover,
a major distraction, etc. The nature of the conflict that caused it should inform the sort of Injury
that occurs.
For an Aspect, every Injury reduces Grit by 1 point. If an Aspect takes an Injury when it is on 0
Grit, then it has been defeated. The Hero who accomplished this should have their victory noted
on the character sheet.
For a Hero in the first or second session, an Injury has two effects. First, you add a new Specialty
to the Hero. You may select any new Specialty as long as it would not have allowed you to reroll
the last roll that led to the Injury. Secondly, reduce Grit by 1 point. If Grit is 0, then you must
reduce one of your emotion ratings by 1 point.
E.g. Two Lions has 6 Grit and loses a conflict against a tribe of cannibal necromancers. He was trying
to use humble to ingratiate himself with the leaders of the tribe, but failed against the tribe's fear
roll. Chad and Derek decide that the Injury is caused when the tribe's elders decide Two Lions is a
spy for their enemies, and he is beaten and ejected from the village. Chad marks the character's Grit
down to 5 and may add a new Specialty that would not have helped in that situation. He chooses to
add a Friendly tree god as the new Specialty.
The rationale for new Specialties as a result of Injuries is purely based on the game mechanics.
Without this, characters who lost conflicts could quickly go into a death spiral of ever worsening
chances. Instead, they get the chance to make back a bit of lost ground. In terms of the fiction, the
player may decide whether the Hero always had that Specialty but simply never used it, whether
it was learnt as a direct result of the Injury, or anything in between.
For a Hero in the third session, an Injury still has two effects but the second is different to before.
First, you add a new Specialty to the Hero. You may select any new Specialty as long as it would
not have allowed you to reroll the last roll that led to the Injury. Secondly, reduce Grit by 1 point.
If Grit is 0, then the Hero has been mortally wounded. The Hero may choose to instantly apply a
number of Injuries on their opponent as they have points in the emotion rating being used. Then
they die. There's more discussion of mortal wounds, last actions and Hero death on page 19.
Heroic Rivalry
Heroes want Glory. That requires victory in the final conflict roll versus an Aspect. But someone
else might be in conflict with the Aspect. In cases like this, your Hero may attempt to take over.
A takeover attempt must be declared after the round is over and Injuries have been resolved (if
required), but before the next round starts. If more than one other Hero wishes to take over, then
players must take turns attempting this starting from the player on the active Hero's left and
going around the group clockwise.
Each Hero may only make one takeover attempt per round of the original conflict with an Aspect.
These conflicts between Heroes may go on for as little as one round or as many as allowed for by
the conflict rules (even unto death).
Any Hero who loses in one of these conflicts must defer to the winner with regard to whatever it
was about (usually the right to fight an Aspect).
Three Dooms
by Michael Sands
Page 14
E.g Mighty Axe decides to have a go at this earth spirit, so goes into conflict with Obsidian. He is the
Initiator and declares that he is using courage and claiming that it is better to defeat this spirit in
manly combat instead of this endless talking. Obsidian will respond with envy, using his envy of
Mighty Axe's strength to fill him with furious insults.
Mighty Axe rolls 6, 5, 3, 2 and Obsidian rolls 6, 5, 4, 1, 1.
Mighty Axe uses his stone axe to push Obsidian out of the way, rerolling with a Specialty. He gets 4,
3, 2, 1 and is defeated.
Ant says Obsidian calls Mighty Axe a filthy whoreson whose father was a pig and this fills him with
such fury that he is spitting and unable to reply. While he splutters, I go back to my cajoling of the
earth spirit. Also, I'm choosing to injure him.
Barry marks Mighty Axe's Grit down a point and selects Expert tracker as his new Specialty.
Because Obsidian was the Defender, the conflict ends after this one round.
If some or Heroes are overdoing attempts to steal conflicts, they should bear in mind that Injuries
are really quite serious and that too many fights amongst themselves may well mean they fail to
save the town in the end.
by Michael Sands
Page 15
is. He rolls 5, 4, 4, 3, 1 and Derek rolls 4, 3, 2, 1 for the spirit (relying on humble to simply not believe
this stuff). The Aspect is now down to 0 Grit.
Barry thinks about having Mighty Axe try to take over again, but after two Injuries in the first
conflict, he decides against it.
Obsidian has another go, continuing to try and make the spirit do something dangerous due to
dissatisfaction with its lot. Ant rolls 6, 5, 3, 3, 1 and Derek rolls 5, 5, 5, 4. The Aspect has now been
defeated.
Glory
Glory is awarded to the Doom Master and to the Heroes who finally defeated the Aspects.
The Doom Master always gets 1 Glory for their Hero, and they get 1 extra for every undefeated
Aspect. Like many of the rules here, there are differing game design and fictional reasons for this.
From a design perspective, it is necessary that the Doom Master can earn Glory, otherwise
nobody will ever want to do it. The extra awards for undefeated Aspects even give you a
motivation to really try to beat the Heroes when you are Doom Master. In the fiction, it is
assumed that this Glory is earned by the player's Hero doing something else that is glorious and
important to the town.
Each Hero gets 1 Glory per Aspect that they defeated. That specifically means that they must have
made the final attempt (and roll) that led to its defeat.
Healing
All Heroes who have lost Grit during the session get to add 1 back. This represents time resting,
being healed and so on (whatever is relevant to the source of the loss).
E.g. In the examples above, Mighty Axe and Two Lions were both Injured and lost points of Grit.
They each add one back at this point.
Three Dooms
by Michael Sands
Page 16
In other respects the committee meeting is the same as the first one (see page 7).
by Michael Sands
Page 17
Three Dooms
by Michael Sands
Page 18
Three Dooms
by Michael Sands
Page 19
Note that if the conflict is not one that involves combat or obvious sources of physical harm, the
cause of death should be extrapolated from the events. Try to aim for some kind of mythic or
thematic connection. You may also choose to have your Hero not actually killed but instead
crippled, incapacitated or otherwise rendered unable to ever be a champion of their town again.
Death can be caused by other Heroes, too, not just Aspects.
Three Dooms
by Michael Sands
Page 20
Reference Section
This section includes quick summaries of the game structure and rules.
by Michael Sands
Page 21
2.5 Allocate 10 points to the emotions and Grit (see page 6). Driving Emotion has
minimum 2 and must be greater than the Supporting Emotion. Supporting Emotion
has minimum 0. Grit has minimum 3.
Committee Votes
Full rules may be found on page 8.
1 If the Chair thinks a consensus has been reached, they may state that the committee is
agreed on the proposition. They must state the proposition (that is, the nature of the
Doom or Aspect). If all agree then it is noted down by the Scribe, otherwise a vote must be
called.
2 If there is to be a vote, the Chair must state what proposition is being voted on.
2.1 This statement must include whether the vote is to be 'yes' or 'no' or a vote amongst
various stated options.
3 The Chair calls for votes and counts them.
4 If there is a tie, then the Tie-breaker casts an extra vote to break the tie.
5 The Scribe records the outcome of the vote.
Conflict Resolution
Full rules may be found on page 12.
1 Work out who is the Initiator and who is the Defender.
2 The Initiator declares which emotion they will use and how. The Defender responds with
which emotion they will use and how.
Three Dooms
by Michael Sands
Page 22
3 Each player rolls the number of dice equal to their emotion rating, aiming for the highest
unmatched die.
3.1 If they lost, a Hero may reroll their dice if the player narrates how one of the Hero's
Specialties helps them out. Each Specialty may only be used once per conflict.
3.2 If they lost, a Hero may reroll their dice once for each Glory point during a single
conflict.
3.3 If they lost, an Aspect may reroll their dice once if the player narrates how the Aspect
description helps it out. This may be done only once per conflict.
4 The result is now known. What to do next depends on the result and who the opponents
are:
4.1 If a Hero was fighting an Aspect, and the Hero won then the Aspect takes an Injury
and the round ends.
4.2 If a Hero was fighting an Aspect, and the Aspect won, then the Hero takes an Injury
and marks on their sheet that they were defeated by this Aspect. They may never
attempt to overcome it again.
4.3 If two Heroes were fighting, and the Initiator won, then the Initiator may choose
whether or not to Injure their opponent and also whether or not to have another
round of conflict.
4.4 If two Heroes were fighting, and the Defender won, then the Defender may choose
whether or not to Injure their opponent. The conflict ends.
4.5 If there was a tie, the Defender may choose to have both opponents take an Injury. If
not, neither is Injured. The combat continues.
5 If anyone took an Injury, then:
5.1 If they are a Hero and have 1 or more Grit, they lose 1 Grit and may gain a new
Specialty that would not have helped them in that conflict round.
5.2 If they are a Hero, have 0 Grit, and it is the first or second session, they lose 1 from one
of their emotion ratings and may gain a new Specialty that would not have helped
them in that conflict round.
5.3 If they are a Hero, have 0 Grit, and it is the third session, they are mortally wounded.
They may choose to immediately inflict as many Injuries on their opponent as they
have points in the emotion used this round.
5.4 If they are an Aspect and have 1 or more Grit, then they lose 1 Grit.
5.5 If they are an Aspect and have 0 Grit, they are defeated.
6 If a Hero is fighting an Aspect, other Hero(es) may try to take over. This is resolved via
Duels between the Heroes concerned. See page 14.
7 If the conflict has not ended, go to the next round (item 2 in this summary).
by Michael Sands
Page 23
4. Glory: Any Hero who died gains 1 Glory (this can only happen in session three).
5. Healing: Each Hero who has less than their starting Grit regains one Grit.
Glossary
Game Term
Aspect
Chair
Character
Character Sheet
Committee
Conflict
Conflict Resolution
Councilor
Defender
Die/Dice
Doom
Doom Master
Doom Sheet
Driving Emotion
Duel
Free Roleplaying
Glory
Grit
Healing
Hero
Initiator
Three Dooms
Definition
Each Doom has five Aspects that must be overcome to prevent the Doom
occurring.
The player whose character chairs the committee meetings.
A character being roleplayed by a player. Might be a player's Councilor or a
Hero or an incidental extra played by the Doom Master.
A record sheet that keeps track of details about your Councilor and Hero
characters. It is found on page 26.
The powerful members of the town who make decisions. It is made up of all
the player's Councilor characters.
1. A Duel (of wits, might or anything else) between two Heroes.
2. An attempt by a Hero to overcome an Aspect
Conflicts are resolved using the attributes of Heroes and Aspects with
randomization from dice rolls. See page 12 for a full description.
The formal mechanic for resolving a conflict between Heroes and either an
Aspect or another Hero. The full mechanics are described on page 12.
A character who belongs to one of the players and is on the town
committee. The discuss the nature of the Dooms.
The reactive player in a conflict. The Defender gets to decide whether a tie
causes Injuries and also gains a reroll if the Initiator uses the same emotion
in the conflict.
Three Dooms uses normal six-sided dice.
A terrible threat to the town that the characters live in.
The player who is responsible for setting scenes, playing incidental extra
characters and playing the Aspects for the current Doom.
A sheet that keeps track of the Dooms that face the town. Used by the Doom
Master. It is found on page 27.
The main emotion that drives a Hero, Councilor, or Aspect.
A conflict between Heroes.
Play in which each player describes the actions of their character without
reference to the formal rules regarding votes in the committee or conflict
resolution. May be radio play style (only saying what your character says),
in a third person style (describing what the character does) or - usually - a
mixture.
A measure of how successful a player's Hero has been. Glory points allow
rerolls in conflicts as well. The Doom Master may even use their Glory to
reroll for Aspects they control.
A measure of how tough it is to defeat a Hero or Aspect.
At the end of the first and second sessions, Heroes who have been injured
regain one Grit.
A character who belongs to one of the players and is responsible for
defeating the Dooms facing the town.
The active player in a conflict. The Initiator has some freedom to end the
conflict as they desire and gains a reroll if the Defender uses an opposed
by Michael Sands
Page 24
Game Term
Definition
Three Dooms
by Michael Sands
Page 25
____________________
Councilor: ____________________
Role in town:
____________________
Driving Emotion:
____________________
Task in committee:
____________________
Hero:
____________________
Driving Emotion:
____________________ [ _____ ]
Grit:
[ 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 ]
Glory:
Specialties:
____________________
____________________
Each Specialty
____________________
____________________
allows 1 reroll
____________________
____________________
per conflict if it
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
of the session.
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
attempt to
____________________
____________________
overcome any
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
defeated you.
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
Aspects defeated:
___________________ vs ___________________
___________________ vs ___________________
___________________ vs ___________________
___________________ vs ___________________
___________________ vs ___________________
___________________ vs ___________________
___________________ vs ___________________
Aspects get 40 points for 4 players; + 3 per extra player. Total: ____
Aspect
Emotion (level)
Grit
Defeated by...
Aspect
Emotion (level)
Grit
Defeated by...
Aspects get 50 points for 4 players; + 3 per extra player; + 5 per undefeated Aspect. Total: ____
Aspect
Emotion (level)
Grit
Defeated by...
Doom
Suggested by
Aspects
Suggested by
Aspects
Suggested by
Aspects
Doom
Doom